The NBA’s trade deadline provided much intrigue about possible transactions in the league.

However, most of the buzz around the deadline turned out to be nothing more than wild speculation.

The biggest deal of the trade deadline actually occurred days before the Thursday deadline, when star center Demarcus Cousins was dealt from the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans.

This trade set up the Pelicans with the most formidable frontcourt duo in the NBA, as Cousins, a perennial All-Star, is now paired with forward Anthony Davis, who has contended for league MVP votes in his first five seasons in the league.

Most of the talk around the trade centered on the inept management of the Sacramento Kings, where general manager and former NBA center Vlade Divac told the media that the team would not trade Cousins, two days before the deal took place.

The Kings received very little talent in return for Cousins, who had made it clear that he did not anticipate to re-sign with the team when his contract was up, which hurt the Kings’ leverage in potential trades.

Even with the addition of Cousins, the Pelicans are still outside of the playoff race, and made this deal with the hopes of bolstering their roster in order to make a late season push towards the postseason.

While some of the attention of the trade deadline went to deals that actually occurred, most conversation took place over speculated trades which never came to fruition before the Feb. 23 deadline.

One of the main rumors of the trade deadline period involved New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, who had been rumored to be traded to a contending team, such as the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Clippers.

These rumors were built on by tweets from current players, where NBA analysts over-thought many scenarios, sending fan bases into frenzies about whether their team would land a big name player.

Other trade rumors that dominated NBA discussion for the week leading up to the trade deadline included potential deals that would send Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler or Indiana Pacers forward Paul George to the Boston Celtics for a first-round pick, all of which fell through before the deadline.

There were many deals that were speculated about, and almost all major players in the league were not traded to another team..

This shows how sports media searches for stories that dominated the news cycle for the week, even if many of them did not come to fruition in the end.

The countless hours of reports and speculation about possible NBA trades ended up being essentially useless by the time the deadline passed.